Before we get started, we must pay our respects to the late, great, Whale with their theme song, Brass Bonanza.

If you don’t know who the Hartford Whalers were, if you’ve only started watching the NHL in the last 15 years or so, the Whalers were the team that moved to Carolina and became the Hurricanes. The above theme song is a cherished classic of the their days in the Insurance State of Connecticut, a tune composed by an aspiring songwriter named Jack Say. It became the Whalers’ “song” after goals were scored, and soon became as much associated with the Whalers as their big green logo.

I respect the heck out of Brendan Shanahan and know he has a thankless job. He is, as they say where I come from, wicked smart (smaht).
But I’m sorry, what happened to Milan Hejduk from Columbus Blue Jackets forward Derek MacKenzie on Sunday and the zero consequences he paid for it? It makes even me mad, the guy who is supposed to be objective and play no favorites for the team I cover.

How the bleep does Derek McKenzie not only not get suspended for the following hit on Hejduk that happened in Sunday’s game with the Blue Jackets, but not even a two-minute penalty?

Done seeing that video of the hit? Uh, McKenzie did a Lambeau Leap into Hejduk. He got more air than Michael Jordan on that hit. How the bleep does MacKenzie not get a penalty on that?????????????? Did MacKenzie fail to jump literally out of Nationwide Arena, is that why he didn’t get a penalty?

Honestly, what a joke this is. By all accounts, Derek MacKenzie is a nice guy, with a reputation as a tough but honest player. That’s great, but this is one of the biggest no-brainer penalties I’ve EVER seen in my years covering hockey, and yet MacKenzie got nothing. Nothing from referees Paul (March 26, 1997, no game-misconduct for Darren McCarty for an obvious instigator on Claude Lemieux) and Tim Peel, and nothing from the NHL department of player safety, headed up by former Red Wing Shanahan.

Why do I bring up the fact that Shanahan was a former Red Wing, and part of the most vicious rivalry in recent NHL history, the celebrated Avs-Wings “Blood Feud” rivalry? Well, normally I never would. But I gotta tell ya, the Avalanche front office and many, many of its fans are convinced the NHL gives them unfavorable treatment, just because not many around the league don’t like the Avalanche. Normally I’d laugh off any conspiracy theory like that, but doing nothing about ridiculously obvious penalties like MacKenzie’s doesn’t stop the conspiracy theorists at all, and only makes me perk my ears up a little more that maybe, just maybe, there is something to it.

I always said that Peter Forsberg was the victim of an absolute joke of a double standard as a player. He took more cheap shots than any player of the recent age, yet very, very few of them were ever penalized by major penalties and/or suspensions. Joe Sakic – JOE FREAKIN’ SAKIC – was once SUSPENDED for a PLAYOFF game by former NHL discipline czar Brian Burke for a completely innocent collision with Detroit’s Kris Draper in 1998. Sakic was trying to GET OUT OF THE WAY of Draper when they collided at center ice, and Sakic gets a one-game suspension for Game 1 of the first round against Edmonton. The Avs lost that one game and lost the series in seven games. That remains the worst disciplinary decision I’ve ever seen in my years covering this game. Call me an Avs homer all you want, I don’t care. It was and remains a joke.

We’ve seen Gabe Landeskog get crushed with a hit this year that resulted in no suspension, but I actually thought it was a good hockey hit. Tough, yes, maybe Stuart left his feet too much, yes, but Landy had his head down at the blue line and that’s what happens when you do.

But here is Milan Hejudk, a clean, gentlemanly player, a true credit to the sport, getting crushed by a Lambeau Leap from a stiff player on the worst team in the league and there’s no call. Hejduk tonight will miss his second straight game because of that hit. He’s out with a torso injury. He left the ice after the hit, but toughed it out to play the rest of that game Sunday. But he was playing hurt, and then the injury worsened. Now, the Avs are without a former Rocket Richard Trophy winner, a key part of their team still, while Derek MacKenzie gets to go on his merry way and play for Columbus.

The NHL department of player safety apparently thinks nothing of this whole thing.

Nice work, Paul Devorski, Tim Peel and Brendan Shanahan. You’re not at all feeding the conspiracy theorists that the league has it in for the Avs.

***Update: Just to give you a preview of tomorrow’s story in the paper: It’s going to be a quiet day for the Avs on free-agent day. Also, Theo, Bruno, Sauer and Finger are good as gone.

Before I get started, let me just say this: the Tampa Bay Lightning are insane. They just gave Ryan Malone $31.5 million for seven years, guaranteed. Insane. This is nothing more than a mediocre power forward, who played on a line much of the time with Sidney Crosby and still had only 51 points in 77 games for the Pens last season. He was terrible in the Finals against Detroit, too, a total non-factor.
Mark my words, that signing will be the kind of albatross around Barry Melrose’s neck like Bobby Holik was to the Rangers, or Alexei Yashin on the Island.
Insane.

Francois Giguere should be making the media rounds today, talking about the Avs on the day before free agency.

I think it’s going to be a fairly quiet day for the Avs, but to quote Dennis Miller, I could be wrong. Read more…

Just wanted to alert those hockey collectors out there of what I believe is a unique opportunity, starting tomorrow.
I’m auctioning off a signed copy of my Avs-Wings rivalry book “Blood Feud” on NHL.com, starting Wed., April 16 through the 30th.
But not just any signed copy. Many great players from the best rivalry in pro sports during its heyday signed the book, including: Peter Forsberg, Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Nick Lidstrom, Alex Tanguay, Chris Drury, Brendan Shanahan, Milan Hejduk, Rob Blake, Darren McCarty, Kris Draper, Chris Osgood, Sergei Fedorov, Scotty Bowman, Marc Crawford, Bob Hartley, Larry Murphy, Mike Ramsey, Chris Simon, Martin Lapointe, Adam Foote, Dan Hinote, Ken Holland and many others.

The highest bidder will see his money donated to Hockey Fights Cancer. It’s for a good cause, and that’s a lot of Hall of Famers’ signatures in one place. So, raid the piggy bank. I have no idea how much interest this book will draw, so you might get it for a bargain. Or, it might take off in expense. We’ll see.

I have had this book in my possession for nearly two years now, and tried to get it signed by as many players from the rivalry as I could. My paths have not crossed with players such as Patrick Roy, Claude Lemieux, Mike Vernon and Mike Keane, however, so their signatures are not in it – yet. Maybe the winner can carry it forward and get them to sign it.

Greetings from a cradle of American retail development gone wild, the Bell Rd. area of Phoenix/Glendale. Just about every store/restaurant/fitness/hotel chain you could ever name is within a Tom Brady throw from where I write.
In town here for tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve matchup between YOUR Colorado Avalanche and Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena. That venue name just gives you tingles, doesn’t it? Just like the Fabulous Forum or the Gahden (Boston, of course) or Churchill Downs, you just feel the power of history when you say you’re going to Jobing.com Arena.
Before I get to a few random hockey/Avalanche musings, I want to give fair warning to any fan out there who might want to bid soon on what I feel will be a very unique item of hockey memoribilia. And, yes, it gives me a joint opportunity to gratuitously plug my book “Blood Feud”, about the Avs-Red Wings rivalry. Read more…

Welcome to the first-ever Adrian Dater blog on denverpost.com. I know that many of you will want to print it out and sell it on eBay, being such a historic thing and all.

A blog is a word that a few years ago I might have associated with a bathroom act or some other unmentionable thing, but now it’s an everyday fact of life in the world, even in that old relic of a business most of you now call the newspaper industry.Read more…

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.